New Delhi: In view of a shortage of land in the capital, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has requested the Union Environment Ministry to allow compensatory afforestation in adjoining states if forest land is acquired in the city for Central projects.
The ministry's Forest Advisory Committee discussed the issue in June-end and requested additional information from Delhi authorities to ascertain how the proposal for relaxed compensatory afforestation norms can impact the city's green cover.
"There is very limited land available in Delhi for compensatory afforestation. It had been planned that 15 percent of Delhi''s area will be set aside for green cover. This area is already saturated ... either due to plantation or other public facilities coming up on it. So, we don't have vacant non-forest land for compensatory afforestation," a DDA official said.
According to the guidelines issued under the Forest Conservation Act, compensatory afforestation is to be carried out on suitable non-forest land, equivalent to the area proposed for diversion, at the cost of the user agency.
Compensatory afforestation can also be raised in degraded land, twice in extent of the forest area diverted, in case of the projects implemented by the Central government or public sector undertakings.
The guidelines also state that in exceptional cases where land for compensatory afforestation (CA) is not available in the same state or Union Territory, non-forest or degraded land for CA can be identified in any other state or UTs for projects of the central government or PSUs, the official said.